


hark the herald angels are annoying

by narcissablaxk



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Ahh capitalism, Angst and Fluff, Angst with a Happy Ending, Christmas AU, Christmas shopping bonding, Enemies to Lovers, Idiots in Love, LaRusso divorce, M/M, Mild Homophobic Language, S2 Canon Divergence, lawrusso, mild angst?, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:41:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28117869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narcissablaxk/pseuds/narcissablaxk
Summary: Daniel tries to help Johnny figure out what to get Robby for Christmas, against Johnny's will.orForced found family bonding over Christmas.
Relationships: Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence
Comments: 47
Kudos: 327





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> content warning for mildly homophobic language in the first chapter.

Daniel LaRusso loved Christmas, the whole package of it. The weather, the shopping, the decorating, all of it opened some giddy little child in him that, at even fifty years old, he was loathe to repress. Why should he decide that Christmas was nothing more than a burden just because he wasn’t a child anymore? No, he still loved drinking eggnog and decorating the tree and all of the little activities that most adults found trying. 

Amanda used to say it was because he was a child at heart. She still said that, just with less affection. Impending divorce will do that to a tone, he supposed, though both of them had been remarkably mature about the whole thing, if he could toot their own horns. 

The children didn’t much care about how mature they were, unfortunately. Both Sam and Anthony had decided that Amanda and Daniel were public enemy number one and two, respectively, their numbers decided by a random flip of the coin every day, depending on which of them happened to say the wrong thing first. 

Still, Daniel didn’t let that put a damper on his Christmas spirit, even though he felt that nagging sadness late at night in those twilight moments between when his head hit the pillow and sleep claimed him for a few hours. There was no one to decorate the tree with him, no one to open the advent calendar with him, no one to do any of the fun Christmas stuff with, unless he bribed his children, and even when he did, their acting left much to be desired. 

Okay, so maybe Christmas was going to be a bit of a bust this year. 

He sat at the dining room table and wrote down a list of everyone he was buying gifts for. He hesitated slightly over Amanda’s name, wondering who he could ask about the propriety of buying his soon-to-be-ex-wife a gift, and settled on writing it down anyway. 

He also hesitated over Robby’s name. There was no doubt in his mind that he was going to buy him a gift, but there was someone else who should be buying him a gift, too. Someone who definitely needed to prove that he cared enough about his son to buy him a Christmas gift, even if their relationship could be summed up in two awkward dinners and a couple of rides to and from school. 

He picked up his phone and found Johnny’s name, still in his contacts after the whole almost-school-brawl situation, and pressed it. It rang, and while it did, he jotted notes down next to his son’s and daughter’s names. It rang again while he considered whether or not he should allow material items to mend his relationship with them, or if that would be cheap. It rang again, and – after a tell-tale click, Johnny’s voice came through. 

“What’s happened now?” he asked, his voice gruff enough that Daniel almost asked if he’d been asleep. But that wasn’t important. 

“Nothing happened,” he replied. “I wanted to talk to you about Robby.” 

“I thought you said nothing happened.” 

Daniel wrote down “ _Mortal Kombat_?” next to Anthony’s name and sighed his exasperated sigh that he reserved specifically for Johnny Lawrence. “Nothing happened,” he insisted. “I’m talking about what to get Robby for Christmas.” 

Johnny, on the other end, went curiously silent. Daniel waited, and waited, and then pulled the phone away from his ear to make sure the call hadn’t ended. But no, there was his name on the display. “Johnny?” 

“What’s the question?” 

Daniel rolled his eyes. “I’m going to go Christmas shopping soon, and I’d kind of like to not get Robby the same thing you are.” 

The breath that came over the line was full of annoyance. “I’m sure that won’t happen, LaRusso. Goodbye.” 

“Wait, Johnny,” Daniel blurted. “If – if you haven’t gone Christmas shopping, just give me an idea, and I’ll get him something else.” 

Johnny huffed again, and this time Daniel heard a refrigerator door and a glass bottle clink. “He doesn’t want me to get him anything for Christmas, alright, so don’t worry about it.” 

The call ended before Daniel could say anything else.

He stared at the phone for a long time, trying to decipher the oblique clues Johnny had let slip through his obstinate responses. Still, he came up empty. Had Robby actually indicated that he didn’t want Johnny to get him anything for Christmas? That didn’t seem likely, though Robby was painfully aware of all the things people bought for him, or gave to him. He seemed to blanch every time Daniel bought take out for the family, eyeballing every receipt at the grocery store. He was too aware of money for a kid his age. It was possible that he told Johnny not to buy him anything because of that same unfortunate awareness. 

Or the few dinners they’d had as father and son hadn’t gone as well as he’d thought. 

The answer to the mystery didn’t come to him until hours later, when he was subtly trying to ask Sam what she wanted for Christmas, making notes of the brand name of some backpack, a new pair of AirPods, knowing that he was going to get her that bo staff she’d mentioned a few weeks ago during training. 

He knew his daughter well enough to know that she fed him items for Christmas that she was interested in, but what she really wanted, she kept further under wraps. He had to work for it. 

And then it hit him: Johnny didn’t know what to get his son for Christmas. 

***

Johnny hated Christmas. He remembered being a child and enjoying the holiday, especially when it was just himself and his mother, with a puny tree and some mismatched ornaments. She always made some oven-baked lasagna from a box, and they would fall asleep in front of the old television with messed up color watching Rudolph. 

And then Sid made their Christmases more expensive and his love of the holiday faded. 

He hadn’t planned on getting anyone anything for Christmas – Robby had told him, with that blank look on his face, that he didn’t want anything, and Johnny had taken him at his word. 

And then LaRusso had called and now he was caught up in a whirlpool of respecting his kid’s wishes and trying to decipher if he meant something completely different than what he said. If he misinterpreted what Robby wanted, he could irrevocably damage the very fragile peace they’d established. No more dinners, no more rides to and from school. No hope for anything more than that. 

He gathered the little plastic ties of his trash bag and yanked open his front door to take it outside to the dumpster, almost running headlong into Daniel LaRusso, who was standing on his doorstep, hand raised to knock. 

“Jesus _Christ_ , Johnny,” he exclaimed, stumbling back a step, giving Johnny the space he needed to step around him toward the dumpster. 

“What are you doing here?” he asked. Daniel scurried after him, footsteps echoing around the little courtyard. 

“I – well,” Daniel hesitated, tripping over one of his feet while he tried to settle on the right words. “About Robby.” 

Here we go again. “LaRusso, I told you everything I know,” Johnny said impatiently. “If you don’t know what to get him, then –”

“I think you don’t know what to get him,” LaRusso interrupted, the words punchy and quick, like he couldn’t wait to get them out of his mouth. 

“You come all the way to tell me that?” Johnny asked, letting the dumpster slam closed, feeling an ugly little bit of satisfaction when Daniel jumped at the sound. “Congratulations, LaRusso, you want a prize?” 

“What?” Daniel asked. “No, I was coming to help.” 

“Help?” Johnny repeated. It wasn’t that he didn’t hear him, he just didn’t want to believe it. The audacity that LaRusso possessed, coming here to exemplify all the reasons why Johnny was a shitty parent, and then having the sheer grace to offer his help, like Johnny could just accept it without feeling like he’d been run over by a steamroller, flattened and small and insignificant. “Screw you, LaRusso.” 

Daniel took the insult with a blink, his face completely blank before it filled with an emotion Johnny was familiar with – disappointment. 

“Right, I forgot, you don’t want help,” he snapped, crossing his arm in front of his chest. “Because you’d rather fail alone than accept that someone might know better than you.” 

Was that a low blow? It certainly felt like one. Hurt bloomed in Johnny’s chest but he took it on the chin. “I don’t need you coming here trying to feed your rich guy charitable sensibilities so you can go home and have some circle jerk about how much of the Christmas spirit you have, LaRusso,” Johnny shot back, stepping cleanly around him to his apartment door. 

Daniel flinched at the words but didn’t acknowledge them more than that. He followed after Johnny, teenage Jersey boy in every little movement, still looking for a fight, ready to put his fists up, even metaphorically. Predictable. 

“Your son deserves better,” he said simply after a moment and Johnny stopped with his hand on the doorknob, shoulders tight. “I’m going Christmas shopping tomorrow. I’m going to come by here at ten a.m. and I’m going to wait in the parking lot for ten minutes. If you want to come with me, great. If you don’t, then I guess Robby will be spending Christmas with just me.” 

It really wasn’t fucking fair, that LaRusso had shit like that in his arsenal. Johnny fondly remembered when all he could do when he was angry was splutter and throw a sucker punch. Now, it seemed, age and money made him articulate, and that made him both kind and hurtful. A completely different kind of sucker punch that was somehow even more effective.

And Johnny wouldn’t even have bruises to show for it.

He shoved open his apartment door and slammed it behind him.

***

Johnny slid into Daniel’s front seat with exactly ten seconds to spare. He didn’t say anything, but reached for the seat belt and buckled in, eyes stubbornly forward, hands tight in his lap. Daniel allowed himself a moment to survey him – clean shaven, Whitesnake shirt that wasn’t as faded as the other ones, no smell of booze in sight, before he clicked his tongue and went on his way. 

“I thought maybe we could look at skateboard stuff for Robby,” he offered after the silence had gone on for nearly half an hour. “He’s always on that thing.” 

“Do you know anything about skating, LaRusso?” Johnny asked, rolling his head on the headrest to look at Daniel, blue eyes bright and scrutinizing. Daniel only caught a glimpse of them before he turned back to the road, nervousness pressing insistently on his throat. 

“I know what skateboards look like,” he said weakly. Johnny huffed a breath that was almost a laugh or a scoff, it was impossible to tell. 

“You’d need to know the size of the bearings, or the kingpin, or even the wheels, if you wanted to get parts for it,” Johnny muttered. “I looked into it.” 

Daniel whipped his head around again, the road be damned, and took in Johnny’s sharp profile. “So you did…look into it?” 

“He’s my kid.” 

Daniel clenched his jaw and turned away. “What else did you look into?” 

Johnny shrugged, shaving Daniel’s patience down to nearly nothing. Was the entire trip going to be like pulling teeth? Because Christmas shopping was supposed to be fun, and if this was going to be just another one of this year’s disappointments –

“I love this song,” Johnny said under his breath, leaning over the gearshift to turn up the radio, some rock rendition of “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree.” 

Of course, the only Christmas song Johnny Lawrence would openly admit to liking would have the word rock in it. Daniel almost rolled his eyes at the sheer cliché of it all, but settled for listening to the man in question hum the lyrics, his fingers now drumming on his leg. Perhaps it was always going to be music that fizzled the obvious animosity when they were in the same space. It had been Speedwagon last time. 

It would be Christmas music this time. 

“Have you considered music?” he said, the idea falling out of his mouth before he could stop it. 

Johnny paused in his drumming, turning his sharp gaze on Daniel again, pinning him effectively in place. Luckily, they were already pulling into a parking lot and Daniel didn’t have to worry about car safety and the weight of Johnny’s gaze at the same time. 

“What about music?” 

“For Robby,” Daniel continued. “He’s always listening to music. I’ve seen him in a Misfits shirt.” 

“The Misfits broke up in ’83,” Johnny supplied helpfully. “In case you were thinking of concert tickets.” 

“I wasn’t,” Daniel assured him. “But I can ask Sam what other bands he listens to. You certainly like your band shirts, I think Robby inherited that from you.” 

He felt like he watched Johnny’s gaze soften – a slow melting that caught Daniel completely off-guard. One moment Johnny was practically glaring in his direction, the next he was looking off into the distance with an almost smile on his face. Daniel wondered, suddenly, what it must feel like to see what part of you lived on in your child suddenly, without having it for years. 

Like a starving man presented with a meal. 

“I’ll text her,” he said softly when Johnny didn’t say anything, and then the conversation was over. 

***

The first thing Daniel did when they got to the mall was buy some expensive handbag for his almost ex-wife. Johnny watched him do it, selecting the bag and the color with near lightning speed and confidence, leaning absently against a rack of…he squinted at them…wallets? He didn’t know, they were ugly anyway. 

“Did you just spend eight hundred dollars on a bag?” he asked dryly when Daniel was finished, sheepishly shoving the receipt into the bag, and the bag into the other bag the snooty cashier gave him. “For your ex-wife?” 

“She’s not my ex-wife yet,” Daniel reminded him. “It’s our tradition.” 

“You spend too much on a gift?” 

Daniel looked like he was going to snap at him, and then he closed his eyes and laughed. “Yeah, I guess we do.” 

“What does she get you?” Johnny asked, curiosity making him sociable. 

Daniel just shrugged one shoulder. “Wouldn’t you like to know.” 

He led the way to another store, Johnny trailing behind. It was some video game store, full to bursting with pimply kids that reminded him of the students who quit Cobra Kai after one lesson, knobby knees and pointed elbows that they hadn’t grown into yet. 

“I’m looking for _Mortal Kombat XL_ ,” Daniel said to him like it was a secret. As if Johnny knew what that meant. 

“Good for you,” he said, a lilt to the end of the sentence like it was a question. 

“Just go see if you can find it,” Daniel put his hands on the middle of Johnny’s back and pushed, gently using him as a human battering ram to get between the masses. Johnny was annoyed to find that it worked, and after only about ten steps, his eyes found something that looked like what Daniel had been looking for. 

“LaRusso,” he said. Daniel’s hands tightened into momentary fists on his shirt to stop him from walking, and he peeked around to see what he was pointing at. “That one?” 

“Grab it,” Daniel commanded, so firmly that Johnny didn’t even think about questioning him. “I’ll get in line.” 

Johnny met him with the little case – Daniel was on the phone, talking so animatedly he almost smacked Johnny in the face with one of his flailing hands, all manicured and well-tended with callouses on the palm, a contradiction like the man himself. He dodged the hand, trying but not really succeeding in not eavesdropping. 

“Amanda, I’m trying to get my Christmas shopping – no, I can’t go get him right now – yes, I understand that you’re at the –” a heavy, beleaguered sigh, and then defeat. Johnny watched him pinch the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, yeah, I’ve got it. No, I’ll do it. Fine. Bye.” 

He hung up the phone, his thumb pressing into the little red circle on the screen with such force it turned white. He tightened his jaw and turned halfway to Johnny. 

“Sometimes I wish we still had flip phones.” 

“So you can slam them shut,” Johnny said knowingly. 

Daniel didn’t say anything for a while, his foot tapping impatiently on the weird patterned carpet beneath their feet as the line moved sluggishly forward. Johnny didn’t want to ask – at this point, asking might be the beginning of an unsteady spiral toward yet another public fight. So he stayed silent, watching the nerds with their stupid games.

“Anthony got into a fight at school,” he said finally, when he was putting his credit card back into his wallet, the game in its own little bag to join Amanda’s heinously expensive one. “I have to go pick him up.” 

Which meant Christmas shopping was finished. 

“Did he win?” Johnny asked helpfully. 

***

Johnny wasn’t sure what was more concerning – that LaRusso rain-checked their shopping trip, or that he agreed. It was the least he could do, when he was doing that neurotic speed-talking thing on the entire drive to Anthony’s school, not bothering to drop Johnny off at his apartment first because it was too far out of the way. 

Really, he just wanted this ordeal to be over. 

Daniel left him in the car while he went to deal with his son, thank God, because Johnny wasn’t sure he was going to be able to stomach sitting next to Daniel fucking LaRusso while the principal explained all the reasons why violence was wrong and school counselors can solve every problem and yadda yadda, whatever that parroting no tolerance for violence bullshit was these days. 

He managed, while Daniel was gone, to change all of his pre-saved radio stations to the classic rock station, and adjusted his volume so every time he turned the car on, the radio would blast loudly enough for little Jersey boy to jump through his own roof. 

The prank gave him a giggle that kept him occupied until he spotted Daniel, hand on his son’s shoulder, marching back toward the car. 

“I already told you –”

“Yeah, you said he was picking on you, but you didn’t say what he said,” Daniel gave Johnny a momentary glance in recognition before fixing his disapproving glare on his son. “If you want me to believe you, you gotta tell me –”

“What the hell is he doing here?” 

“None of your business,” Johnny answered. 

Daniel glared at him. “We were running errands –”

“Together? Gross,” Anthony grumbled, buckling himself up in the back, a Kleenex stuffed up his left nostril, barely saturated with blood. 

“Anthony –”

“Didn’t know your kid was a homophobe, LaRusso,” Johnny muttered. 

Daniel gave him an exasperated look that almost made him laugh. He should lay off – Daniel was so stressed the little vein in his forehead was suddenly visible, a little ticking time bomb. Johnny lifted his hands in mock surrender and settled back into his seat. 

“What did he say to you?” Daniel asked again, picking up on the interrogation of his son. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Anthony insisted, and Johnny could see, from his spot in the passenger seat, the kid pulling at the Kleenex in his nose, wincing. There was a flush on his neck, the same way his father got when he was frustrated or embarrassed. 

“Antonio –”

“Dude, clearly whoever he punched said something about you,” Johnny muttered. “Be cool.” 

“And how would you know?” Daniel asked, eyes flashing. “You don’t know my kid –”

“But I’m right,” Johnny said firmly. “Just trust me, LaRusso –”

Except LaRusso Senior was just like Junior – stubborn and too hot-headed for his own good. He shook his head, the vein in this forehead jumping again. “No, Anthony, you will tell me why you punched that kid, or –”

Johnny glanced back at the kid as he finally burst out, “He said you like to suck dick and that’s why you and mom are getting divorced.” His face was bright red, a little trail of blood was coming out of his nose now that the Kleenex was gone. Johnny motioned to the little spot with his finger and Anthony flipped him off but put the tissue there to catch it. 

Daniel didn’t say anything. No one did. 

Later, when the car ride was over, and Johnny was back in his apartment, Anthony now firmly in the front seat of the car, Daniel pulling out of his parking lot, he realized that LaRusso had never actually denied it. He hadn’t said anything at all. 

That silence would stay with him longer than he’d admit to anyone who asked.

***

Daniel picked Johnny up the next day, same time. It was like being in Groundhog’s Day – he watched Johnny get into the car, took in his attire, noted that he didn’t smell like booze, pulled out of the parking lot, and drove to the mall. 

He could tell that Johnny didn’t want to talk about the day before – it wasn’t exactly good car talk. So your kid is getting picked on because his peers think you might be gay? He would actually prefer to talk about any other subject on the face of the earth, probably. 

After about ten minutes of painful silence, Daniel finally blurted, “Did you fuck with my radio presets yesterday?” 

Johnny’s surprised laugh chased the awkwardness from the vehicle.


	2. Chapter 2

The drive to the mall was less awkward once LaRusso whined for approximately ten minutes about his radio presets, which he had already changed back. It was easy for Johnny to pretend like he was adjusting the volume so he could move a preset around again, which Daniel always slapped his hand for, like a teacher in a Catholic school. It amused Johnny to no end, and it kept them from discussing Anthony, so he was willing to get his hand slapped all damn day if he had to. 

He split off from LaRusso once they got inside, a bag in his hand. He didn’t offer him any explanation, and Daniel didn’t ask for one. He just tossed him a haphazard, “meet you right here in twenty minutes” and was off into the crowd. 

The embroidery shop was tucked in a far-flung corner of the place, far enough that Johnny could think of no excuse to go there other than openly admitting where he was going. He was in and out in less than ten minutes – to pick up a red jacket, identical to his own Cobra Kai one, with a fresh Cobra Kai patch on the shoulder, for Miguel. 

He didn’t want Daniel to think that he considered what to get Miguel more intently than his own son, but the truth was, it was just easier to come up with an answer for Miguel than it was for Robby. And the longer he thought about it, the more he realized that his knowledge of his son was mostly blank spaces that he’d hoped to eventually fill in. Except Christmas was looming over him like a curse, and there wasn’t any time to fill in the blanks anymore. He was just haplessly playing Mad Libs and hoping something worked out.

He found Daniel back where he left him, a bag in his own hand. He eyed Johnny’s bag, but didn’t ask. 

“I got that list of bands from Sam,” he said cautiously, holding out his phone, where the list had been typed out on a little electronic notepad. Johnny almost scoffed. “If you wanted to get Robby something related to music.”

Johnny eyed the list. “Who is My Chemical Romance?” he asked. 

“I like them,” Daniel shrugged.

“Ringing endorsement,” Johnny muttered. Daniel laughed, like Johnny hadn’t just insulted his taste in music, and shrugged one shoulder. 

“Motionless in White, Falling in Reverse, I don’t know any of these bands,” Johnny said, scrolling down the list. 

“You don’t have to know them to get him something,” Daniel pointed out. “A shirt, or a jacket –”

Johnny held the bag with Miguel’s jacket a little bit tighter. Guilt settled, heavy on his shoulders. “It doesn’t feel good enough, LaRusso,” he said, looking up at the storefronts as they meandered through the mall. “Clothes, music, skateboards – it all feels like I’m trying to buy him.” 

“Yeah, sometimes Christmas feels that way,” Daniel acknowledged. 

“But it _shouldn’t_ ,” Johnny exclaimed, pausing in front of a maternity store that he never directly looked at. It twisted something ugly in his gut, seeing the mannequins with the pregnant bellies and the women inside, some with men half a step behind them, but most of them alone. “It shouldn’t just feel like I grabbed the first thing I could find and threw it at him.” 

Daniel didn’t say anything, but Johnny could feel his eyes on him, digesting, processing, understanding in only the way Daniel LaRusso could. After a long moment, Daniel’s hand slid around the crook of his arm and tugged him away from the store. 

He released Johnny at little table at a coffee kiosk. He left him there, Miguel’s jacket halfway out of the bag on the table, and came back a moment later with two cups of coffee with some whipped cream on top. Johnny wrinkled his nose at it, but Daniel pushed it insistently at him. 

The silence stretched on for a long time before Johnny realized Daniel was waiting for him to explain himself, and he was perfectly content to wait. 

“Son of a bitch,” he muttered to himself, taking a sip of the too-hot coffee. It did nothing to help. “You grew up poor.” 

Daniel flinched. “Yeah, Johnny, I did.” 

That was a terrible way to start. “Right, well, so did I. Living in an apartment with a stranger who rented our back room kind of poor. So around Christmastime, I always worried that Santa wouldn’t find our house. Sometimes he didn’t, because my mom could barely afford to feed me dinner, much less buy me some toy I was going to get bored with half an hour later.” 

He watched Daniel tighten his jaw and swallow, like he was forcing words back down.

“When she did get me gifts for Christmas, they were necessities. Clothes, shoes, socks, things like that.” He had a tight hold on the coffee cup – so tight he could see the little plastic top straining to stay on. He released it and put his palms flat on the table. “But she always told me that gifts should be a statement. You are telling someone you love them when you give them a gift. What you give them should tell them clearly how you feel.” 

“And how do you feel?” 

“Fucking inadequate.” 

Daniel’s head ducked, obscuring his facial expression. Johnny wanted to see it – wanted to see the pity that would ignite his rage, so he could have an excuse to get up and leave. He would take any excuse now. 

And then Daniel’s hand caught him around the wrist. 

“Then let’s talk about what you’re trying to say to Robby,” he said, and his voice wasn’t quite normal, like there was something stuck in his throat. “After all this time, what are you trying to say?” 

Johnny stared at the hand on his wrist, tan and still youthful, the tan-line where his wedding ring used to be stark and unmissable. 

“That I’m here,” he said when no other better words presented themselves. “If he wants me to be.” 

***

The afternoon was spent finding and buying Sam a bo staff, which Daniel had to buy from a store that Johnny apparently didn’t know about. He wandered through the little room, eyes wide like a child, his coffee cup in his hand. Daniel found himself looking over his shoulder often to make sure the man was still in the room, and then he’d catch sight of blond hair by the punching bags, or flexing around some gloves. 

“Teaching your Miyagi-do kids how to fight with weapons now?” Johnny asked when they got back to the car, the tension from their previous conversation mostly dissolved around the lines of his shoulders and back. 

“Just Sam,” Daniel corrected. “She’s been asking to learn for a while.” 

“Your Sensei taught you?” 

“A little,” Daniel admitted. “I taught myself a lot.” 

Johnny raised his eyebrows and didn’t answer, but Daniel knew what his impressed face looked like. He bit back his own satisfied grin and drove them home, Johnny content to listen to the music instead of ruining Daniel’s carefully cultivated radio stations. It was a companionable silence, until –

“I told Robby I’d take him to see Shannon on Christmas Eve,” Johnny said when they were pulling into his apartment complex. “Will you come too?” At Daniel’s surprised look, he hurried to add, “I’m not allowed inside, since she can only have one visitor at a time, so I’m going to be bored in the car –”

“Right, sure,” Daniel said with a shrug. 

Johnny stared at his profile – Daniel seemed determined to look out the window. “I’ll – I’ll pick you up,” he said. He pushed open the passenger side door and slid out.

“Text me the time,” Daniel called out the open window when Johnny was almost to his door. 

“Right,” Johnny said, and watched, though he wasn’t sure why, LaRusso back up his car and leave, the open window blowing his hair all over his forehead.

He sighed and went inside.

***

“I still don’t know what to get my dad for Christmas,” Robby said absently the next day, while Daniel was putting his shoes on. Johnny would be outside in five minutes; Robby was already ready, with a little wrapped gift in his hands. Daniel felt nerves sitting lightly in his stomach that he’d already tried to explain away with no success. He had no reason to be nervous – he was just going to sit in a car with Johnny while Robby visited his mom. That’s it.

“Cassettes are a good bet,” he replied without really thinking, tying his shoe. “But really, Robby, I think your dad just wants to spend time with you.” 

“I can’t wrap that, Mr. LaRusso,” Robby pointed out. “Where do people even buy cassettes?” 

An amused laugh escaped him as his phone dinged. He checked the display. “Okay, your dad is here, let’s talk about this later.” 

He forced Robby to sit in the front seat, where Johnny told him to change the radio station if he wanted. He caught Johnny’s eyes in the rearview mirror and raised his eyebrows when Robby’s fingers pressed the buttons, searching for a radio station. It settled on some local station that was playing what Daniel recognized as a band Robby was constantly listening to. 

He didn’t know what the band was called, but the sound was familiar. Johnny’s questioning glance found his in the back seat and Daniel gave him an encouraging shrug. All he had to do now was listen.

_I said I'd never let you go, and I never did  
I said I'd never let you fall and I always meant it  
If you didn't have this chance then I never did  
You'll always find me right there, again_

“Who is this?” Johnny asked when the song hit a lull. 

“A Day to Remember,” Robby offered. “Do you like it?” 

Daniel prayed with everything he had that even if Johnny didn’t like it, he’d lie. 

“Yeah,” Johnny said after a moment. “It’s sad.” 

“Bittersweet,” Robby corrected. 

Daniel heard Johnny clear his throat – he got out of the view of the rearview mirror so Johnny wouldn’t catch him smiling. Johnny Lawrence when he was by himself was all ripped corners, sharp edges, pieces of glass and painful regret. Johnny Lawrence, sitting beside his son, who he desperately wanted to understand? That man was carefully patched wounds, lost and soft all at once. 

It was hard to believe those two were the same person, and that he had the room for them both to exist at the same time. 

Before long, Robby was tapping his hand nervously on the middle console and Johnny was pulling into a parking spot. The little gift on Robby’s lap bounced like a piece of popcorn. 

“Tell your mom I said Merry Christmas,” Johnny said when Robby opened the door. 

“Thanks for the ride, Dad,” Robby said softly, shutting the door behind him. 

The silence that followed was suffocating. 

Finally, Johnny turned down the radio station and said, “Get in the damn front seat so I don’t feel like a chauffeur.”

“We’re going to a Christmas concert at the symphony after this,” Daniel said, unbuckling himself. “Do you want to come, too?” 

“Symphony?” Johnny repeated. “I – I don’t really do fancy shit, LaRusso.” 

Daniel hopped out of the car and into the front seat while Johnny protested, not really listening. All of his excuses were predictable anyway – the music is boring, the clothes are stuffy, the people are annoying. He settled into the seat Robby just left and leaned back in the seat. 

“I’m sure Robby would like you to go,” he said, his perfectly maintained poker face dissolving into a smirk when Johnny rolled his eyes. 

“You’re trying to manipulate me,” he said flatly. “This is fucked up, LaRusso, it’s Christmas. People go soft around Christmas.” 

“People like you?” Daniel asked, dropping his chin to his hand like he really wanted to know. Like he didn’t already know the answer. Johnny looked over at him and immediately looked away again, out toward the rest of the parking lot. 

“Shut up, LaRusso.” 

There was a long moment of silence, and then –

“If we’re going to some fancy shit, I need a jacket,” he muttered, almost to himself. Daniel hid his satisfied grin behind his hand. “Do we have time?” 

Daniel shrugged. “Depends on how fast you drive,” he said. 

***

They pulled up to a painfully crowded mall just as the sun was going down. Daniel was holding tightly to the middle console in the backseat, his smug face pale. So perhaps Johnny had driven a little recklessly to get here with time to spare. Whatever, they’d be fine. 

“Stay here,” he told Daniel firmly, motioning for Robby to get out of the car. “I’ll be back.” 

Robby met him outside the car, confusion wrinkling his brow. “What’s going on?” 

What’s going on was Johnny was about to pull a _Supermarket Sweep_ , but that reference would make no sense to Robby. He steered him through the door, nodding at the man ringing the bell in the Santa suit. 

“I’m going to grab a last-minute gift,” he said. “I need you to grab me a jacket while I do. Meet me in line in five minutes.” 

“ _Five minutes_?” Robby exclaimed, looking around at the madhouse, at the woman using an empty stroller to keep an old man away from a display of ties. “You sure we can get this done in five minutes?” 

“No,” Johnny said, trying to find the little counter he’d noticed last time they were there. “It’ll be a stupid Hallmark Christmas miracle if we pull it off, but,” he shrugged. 

“Dad, Hallmark movies are romances,” Robby pointed out. 

“We don’t have time for this,” Johnny groaned, nudging his son in the direction of the men’s department. “Call me if a middle-aged woman attacks you.” 

Robby gave him a weary salute and shouldered his way through. Johnny waited until he was a healthy distance away before he forced his way through the crowd to a little stand with a relatively short line. There weren’t diamonds or watches behind the counter, so mercifully, he could get up to the counter and get someone’s attention in no time. 

He’d spotted it when he was walking by with Daniel last time they were here – it had caught his eye completely by accident. In fact, he was pretty sure the universe was playing a joke on him, but he caught Daniel’s gaze one too many times in the rearview mirror that afternoon and here he was, listening to a baby scream in his left ear while he motioned to it with his right hand. 

He tried not to think too hard about why he was here, lest he overthink everything and leave empty-handed with no explanation. He was prone to that, overthinking and bolting – Ali called him a skittish puppy once, which he had taken as some sort of insult, but now with years between the comment, he agreed with her. 

And it was Daniel LaRusso that made him skittish – made him nervous and jumpy and made him feel like he was being dissected and pulled apart and stitched back together. 

He had the man behind the counter put a little gold bow around the box just as Robby came crashing into his side, holding a white jacket on a hanger. 

“White?” he asked. 

“It was either this or a red one with Santa hats all over it,” Robby said. He had a smear of glitter on his forehead. His eyes landed on the little box. “What is that?” 

A moment of frivolous insanity caught him around the throat and he lifted the lid on the box. Robby’s eyes searched the little bit of cotton inside, landing on the lotus pendant. He tightened his jaw and tried valiantly to hide a smile. 

“What’s that for?” Johnny asked, fastening the top of the box again and offering the guy behind the counter his credit card. 

“Nothing,” Robby said, lifting one shoulder. “It’s just…you surprise me.” 

***

They met Amanda and the kids at the symphony, Amanda in a knee-length green dress that matched the tie on the little nerd who was holding her around the waist. Sam was on her phone, Anthony talking animatedly to her about something Johnny couldn’t understand. He felt incredibly, painfully underdressed, in dark jeans, black shirt, and a white jacket. He had put it on in the parking lot, checking his reflection in the windows of his car, and caught Daniel looking at him in that same reflection. 

That look alone, unreadable and hopeful in the same breath, was the only reason he was still here. 

Amanda met his gaze and bit her lip, looking back at her almost ex-husband. Daniel did some hand motion and she shrugged, putting a hand on Sam’s shoulder and steering her and Anthony toward the entrance. Johnny watched the whole exchange and understood none of it.

“Did she leave you for –?”

“She did _not_ leave me for Anoush,” Daniel said. “Come on, we’re going to be late.” 

The hall was like going back in time to country club dances and debutante balls and all of the shit that Johnny only attended because Ali and her family were there, or because Sid told him it was non-negotiable. Except this time, when they got inside and the kids followed Amanda and Anoush, Daniel caught Johnny around the elbow and took him to a red velvet cart and ordered two beers. 

“If we let them all get to the seats first, we can sit a row above them,” he said, and how that was supposed to be an advantage, Johnny had no idea, but Daniel’s hand was still on his elbow, and he was passing him a beer in a fucking glass, his smile over the rim mischievous. They were teenagers again, sneaking into an R-rated film. His lips twitched into a smile and he hid it behind his beer. 

When he looked back at Daniel, he was still looking at him, a question in his facial expression that Johnny recognized. He was deciding whether or not to speak. 

“Spit it out, LaRusso,” Johnny said, drinking more of his beer.

Daniel froze, a deer in headlights, especially with his comically huge brown eyes, shimmering with the reflection of all the decorated Christmas trees and tinsel. After a moment, he relaxed and shrugged. “You look good in white,” he said, and turned and walked away, leaving Johnny standing dumbly behind him like he’d been crane-kicked all over again.

He followed after him, up red-carpeted steps until Daniel stepped into a row above the one his wife and kids were occupying. 

“Dad, can I have some beer?” Anthony asked as Daniel settled into his seat. 

“Yes, son,” Daniel said dryly. 

“Really?” 

“Are you kidding?” he laughed. “Ask your mother.” 

“Mom, can I have –?”

“No, Anthony,” Amanda replied without looking over. 

“You don’t even know what I want!” 

“I have two functioning ears and you’re yelling at the symphony, of course I know what you want,” Amanda tore her eyes away from Sam’s phone, where she was reading a text message while her daughter held the phone. 

Johnny had to stifle his laugh behind his fist. 

He caught Robby’s gaze as the lights started going down, the sound of tuning instruments making all conversation impossible. His son’s eyes went from Daniel to Johnny, and he raised his eyebrows. 

Johnny rolled his eyes at him. 

His son turned away when the first song started. 

Johnny expected to be bored during the symphony. It was just a bunch of instruments playing songs he didn’t even really like to begin with. He sipped his beer and waited for the boredom to take him to the edge of sleep. 

Except Daniel nudged him halfway through the first song and passed him the damp napkin from underneath his beer and crumbled up a little piece of it. He held the little spitball-sized projectile in his hand and took aim at the back of his son’s head. 

The first one sailed right past him and hit an old woman in the ear. Both Daniel and Johnny pretended to be intensely moved by the music until her hawk eyes settled somewhere else. 

The second one landed down the back of Anthony’s shirt. 

“Good shot,” Johnny whispered, holding his fist out for a fist bump the same time that Daniel held up his hand for a high-five. He reached up and closed Daniel’s fingers into a fist and gave him the fist-bump anyway. 

“Your turn,” Daniel said quietly, leaning into Johnny’s space to talk directly into his ear. “Pick your target.” 

Johnny pursed his lips and looked around, looking for someone who deserved to have a piece of cold napkin lobbed in their direction. He found a kid, three rows down, asleep with his mouth open. Jesus _Christ_ , the first song wasn’t even over yet. 

“Target acquired,” he said, yanking a piece of napkin off and pressing it into a little ball. He glanced around for onlookers before Daniel impatiently nudged him. The little ball sailed up, up, and hit the sleeping kid in the forehead. He jerked awake, the yelp he made startling the people around him. 

Johnny bit back his laugh, turning away from the kid to look innocent, and landed almost nose-to-nose with LaRusso, who was watching the drama unfold with naked interest, the grin on his face so funny Johnny abandoned all hope of keeping it together and lowered his head to Daniel’s shoulder to laugh. 

“Shut up, you’re going to get us caught,” Daniel muttered, but he was laughing too, his stern words broken up by giggles. Johnny could feel his shoulder shaking with suppressed laughter. “Shh, Johnny, look, look, he’s going back to sleep.” 

Daniel’s hand landed on Johnny’s thigh, squeezing just above the knee. “Look, look,” he said. 

Johnny looked up in time to see the kid shifting, snuggling deeper into the plush symphony hall seats, his parents on either side completely ignoring him. There was a little damp spot in the middle of his forehead where Johnny’s napkin bomb had hit him. 

Daniel’s hand was still on his leg. Johnny settled back into his seat, the performance already onto the next song, and caught Daniel’s hand before it could retreat completely into his space again. He felt Daniel go still, and then relax. 

He didn’t remember the rest of the symphony.


	3. Chapter 3

Johnny didn’t have a plan for Christmas Day. 

He supposed that he should, but now that he was alone in his apartment, the little two-foot tree that he put up on his dinner table the only light in the room, he realized that absolutely zero details of the next day had been ironed out. Though, now that he thought about it, there was no reason that LaRusso would need to figure out any details of his Christmas Day. His kids were already in the house with him. 

He stared at the little white box with the gold bow and the little blue box beside it. He hadn’t wrapped Miguel’s gift yet – he was bad at wrapping gifts and hadn’t felt like embarrassing himself yet. All of a sudden he felt like the gifts he bought were stupid, were useless, were not good enough. The feeling came upon him the way insecurity always did – quickly and without warning, and he sat at the table for a long time trying to decide what to do. 

The mature thing would be to call Daniel and figure out what their plan was for tomorrow. The immature part of him worried that Daniel would ignore his call and he would spend the rest of the night obsessing over the evening at the symphony, replaying the evening on a loop, trying to decide if his decision to drop his hand over Daniel’s was a good idea or ultimately his downfall. 

He went to sleep after wrapping Miguel’s gift poorly with old wrapping paper that he hadn’t realized he still had without making the call. 

He woke to the sound of someone knocking on his door. On the other side of the door was Miguel, holding a plate of food and a wrapped gift underneath it. He grinned at Johnny when the door opened, and stepped inside without any prompting. 

“Merry Christmas, Sensei!” he said, far too happy for someone Johnny was seeing in the first minute and a half of being awake. “I brought you tamales.” 

He put the plate on the table and gave Johnny a look that he recognized as one Carmen regularly directed at him. It translated to _eat or else_. Johnny sat down at the table and unwrapped a tamale, poking his fork into it. 

“Grab that box,” he said with his mouth full. Miguel glanced over at it, a confused smile lingering over his face at the outdated wrapping paper, or perhaps it was the terrible wrapping job. 

“That for me?” he asked, pleased now that Johnny was eating. Johnny nodded and stuffed more tamale in his mouth. That shit was good. 

“Open it,” he said. He could feel the nerves in the pit of his belly. He remembered them from when he used to buy Christmas gifts for Shannon, or for his mom. The anxiety that filled him in the empty space between handing someone a gift and finding out if they liked it or not. He didn’t like the feeling. Maybe he could just get up and leave the room and come back when Miguel was done unwrapping it. 

He pushed his chair back to stand, but Miguel was already getting through the paper. His eyes went wide when the red of the jacket broke through the wrapping. 

“Sensei!” the exclamation descended into a shrill shriek of joy when he spotted the Cobra Kai patch. “My own Cobra jacket?” 

“We gotta match, kid,” Johnny said, but the butterflies in his gut had calmed to a small tornado, and he felt momentarily exhausted. 

Miguel stood up and put his arms through the jacket, Johnny watching while he poked at the food on his plate. “This is the best, Sensei, thank you.” Miguel’s voice had calmed down to that very particular tone he had that Johnny would never forget – the sound of unwavering sincerity. That was what initially frightened him about Miguel – his ability to be so painfully genuine. It was, he thought at first, a sign of naïveté. Now, he understood that it was Miguel’s strength.

“Now open yours.” 

For the first time, Johnny took in the sight of the wrapped box on the table that he hadn’t put there. He wasn’t really sure what to do with it; he realized, as he took in Miguel’s expectant face, that it had been years since he opened a gift. Bobby had given him a birthday gift about four years ago, and even that had been shipped to his door, pre-wrapped. 

“You didn’t have to –”

“Of course I didn’t,” Miguel said patiently. “It’s Christmas. I wanted to.” 

Johnny playfully rolled his eyes and pulled the wrapping paper off, unsticking the bow and tossing it in Miguel’s direction. The boy grabbed it and stuck it to his shirt like a bowtie. 

The gift was a portable tape deck. Johnny stared down at it, and then up at Miguel, who had a frozen smile on his face. 

“I know that you broke your other one,” Miguel said knowingly. “And you have a lot of tapes. You shouldn’t have to be in your car to hear them.” 

“How did you know –?” 

“I helped you clean it up,” Miguel answered. “The day after.” 

Ahh, right. When Johnny had been up to his eyebrows in overdue bills for the dojo and no one would buy what he wanted to pawn; he’d come home and gotten blackout drunk. He didn’t remember the day after, other than a swirl of colors and cursing. If he thought hard about it, he could barely sketch the day out, and Miguel was a vague outline, holding up the broken tape deck, remarking that his headphones were broken too.

“Thank you,” he said, so quietly Miguel tensed his jaw to hide his smile.

“We’re going to watch _Elf_ if you wanna come over later,” Miguel said. “We watch it every year.” 

“What the hell is _Elf_?” 

Miguel had barely opened his mouth to answer when Johnny’s phone lit up on the table, the tinny drums and guitar of his specialized ring tone filling the room. Miguel glanced at the display and back up at him, eyebrows raised. 

“LaRusso,” Johnny answered, trying to keep his voice even.

“What time are you getting here?” Daniel’s voice was distracted – Johnny could hear the sizzling of a pan in the background. “The kids are getting antsy,” he laughed, a breathless, almost absent thing, and muttered, “Apparently teenagers still get up extra early for Christmas presents.” 

“Uhh…”

“ _Johnny_ ,” he was more focused now, a tinge of something in his voice that sounded like amusement. “Did you not think you were coming here for Christmas morning?” 

Daniel was talking loudly enough that Miguel could hear him. He covered his mouth to hide his mirth, but the crinkling around his eyes gave him away. Johnny rolled his eyes at him.

“I’m gonna go,” Miguel mouthed, pointing to the door. “Merry Christmas, Sensei.” 

“Get in your car, Johnny, I’m making chocolate chip bananarama pancakes.” 

“What the hell is –” and the line went dead.

***

The LaRusso house was decorated perfectly for Christmas. It was one of the things Daniel took great pride in – Amanda had convinced him a couple of years ago to hire people to put the lights up outside, but he always insisted on decorating the inside himself. He climbed up the ladder to put the angel on top of the Christmas tree, he and the kids hung the wreaths, and the garland, and made the gingerbread houses. 

Well, this year he made them himself, since the kids were with Amanda, but the sentiment was the same. 

Johnny looked like he didn’t know quite what to do with himself, standing in the entry with gifts in his arms. Daniel allowed himself a distracted moment to take him in, all torn jeans and flannel shirt, the closest thing to festive he owned, and its relation to festive was tenuous (it was just red and green). But standing in Daniel’s foyer, he was a father making a pilgrimage for his son, and that was the greatest Christmas gift Daniel could have asked for. 

It was surprising to know that he cared that much about the well-being of not only Robby, but Johnny too. 

“Come on, Johnny, you act like you’ve never seen the inside of my house before,” Daniel chuckled. “Pancakes? The kids already ate.” 

Johnny shook his head. “Miguel made me eat tamales.” 

“He _made_ you?” Daniel asked. “Under penalty of torture?” 

“You don’t turn down an Ecuadorian woman’s food, LaRusso,” Johnny pointed out. “It’s just not done.” 

“Well, you also don’t turn down an Italian man’s food,” Daniel warned. “Sit.” 

He put a plate of pancakes in front of Johnny a few minutes later, the man himself eyeing the decorations curiously. Daniel could see that his leg was bouncing under the table. He sat at his left, hands folded. The sound of the chair scraping against the floor brought his gaze back to Daniel, blue and sharp and a little wider than usual.

“Eat,” Daniel prompted. “Relax.” 

“Easy for you to say, LaRusso,” Johnny said with a mouthful of pancake. 

Daniel gave him a knowing smile. “Robby is going to love your gift,” he said reassuringly. “It was a really thoughtful choice.” 

“Yeah, and what if he just wanted some concert tickets?” 

“What you got him is way more important,” Daniel said, his hand landing on top of Johnny’s while the other one tapped an uneven rhythm with the fork on the plate. “And I think you’ll like what he got you.” 

“Shit, he didn’t have to get me anything,” Johnny said into his plate, but Daniel could feel his eyes on their joined hands. His bouncing leg beneath the table stopped. “Why are people getting me gifts?” 

“Because we care about you?” Daniel offered. “That’s what people do.” 

Johnny’s gaze lifted to Daniel’s own, his jaw tight. “When you care about people, you don’t need gifts to tell them,” he said. “Gifts are bribery.” 

“We’re not your crappy step-dad, Johnny,” Daniel said, reaching over with his other hand to tear off a piece of pancake. “We aren’t trying to buy you.”

Johnny shrugged one shoulder and poked at the pancake on his plate. Daniel squeezed his hand and stood up, walking behind Johnny so his hand could trail up his arm and settle at the back of his neck before pulling away completely. 

“I’ll prove it,” he said softly. 

He found Robby sitting near the tree with Anthony, a candy cane sticking out of his mouth. When the boy spotted him, he stood up and grabbed a box from under the tree, wrapped in red paper. 

Daniel left him and Johnny alone at the table. 

***

The first thought Johnny had when Robby pulled out the chair next to him was that he was going to kick LaRusso’s ass for this. 

The second thought he had was that he needed to thank him.

“I didn’t think you were going to come,” Robby said, his fingers nervously picking at the box in front of him. 

“I wanted the family to have their time,” Johnny replied. “Didn’t want to butt in.” 

“If I’m part of this family – and I am – then so are you,” Robby pointed out. He leaned over, toward his dad’s shoulder “Mr. LaRusso told me I should tell you that.” 

“Did he now?” 

“You know, when I said you two could learn some things from each other, this isn’t really what I had in mind,” Robby said, but he was smiling down at the placemat.

“What wasn’t?” 

“Oh come on, Dad,” Robby said. He reached out and flicked the gold bow on Daniel’s gift. “I’m not an idiot.” 

Johnny could feel his ears get hot – he shrugged and pushed his plate of unfinished pancakes away from him. “Nothing’s going on,” he said, mostly truthfully, trying not to think about Daniel’s warm hand on the back of his neck only a moment ago. He shivered anyway. 

“Yeah, okay,” Robby said disbelievingly. “Wait until you see what he got you.” 

“Seriously, people need to stop buying me gifts,” Johnny exclaimed, and he looked up toward the doorway, where he caught Daniel leaning against the door frame, watching them both. Daniel smiled and turned away.

“Well, I technically didn’t buy you anything,” Robby said, pushing the red box toward him. “But I did wrap it.” 

There was a piece of the cardboard box underneath sticking out where the paper didn’t quite overlap. Johnny huffed a laugh. “Clearly you got your wrapping skills from me, kid.” 

“Shut up,” Robby muttered, but Johnny could hear him laughing. 

He peeled the wrapping paper off, no longer suppressing his laughter at the overlapping pieces of tape, or the clumsy wrapping, not now that his son was laughing with him. Inside the reused Amazon box was a stack of sheets of rough construction paper. 

Robby’s drawings. 

“We had a lot of these lying around after mom and I got evicted,” Robby explained as Johnny gently pulled them out of the box to flip through. “They were just sitting in a box, and I thought…well, you have some at your place.” 

Johnny paused at one of the drawings near the bottom, this one with little crayon Robby standing beside Shannon and Johnny, both with scribbled blond hair. Above them, in the clouds, was a blonde angel. 

“Grandma,” Robby offered quietly. “I think I drew this around the time you told me about her.” 

Johnny wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. He didn’t remember that conversation at all – knowing that he might have been drunk, or halfway drunk, talking to his young son about his grandmother that he’d never get to meet made him feel like something had hold of his throat. 

He could feel Robby turning to look back at Daniel for support. He cleared his throat and passed the little blue box to him. He couldn’t watch Robby open it – instead he looked down at the drawings, at the little details that he never really noticed, like that Robby colored the sun green for some reason on almost every drawing. That the house they were standing in front of was yellow, even though they never lived in a yellow house. 

“Is this…?” 

Forced to finally look up, Johnny caught his son’s quizzical gaze, holding the little key by the keychain. 

“That’s a key to my place,” Johnny explained. “So you can come by whenever you want. You can – you can even live there, you know, when you’re comfortable, or whatever –” and then Robby was hugging him, arms awkwardly thrown around Johnny’s arms, so he couldn’t even hug him back. He could do nothing but sit there and wait until Robby let him go. 

“Thank you,” Robby murmured against his arm. “You know…for trying.” 

_Thank you for letting me._

Except he didn’t say it out loud – he didn’t dare say it out loud because then what if his voice cracked and what if this all just got too sentimental? He looked up and Daniel was unabashedly watching them now, a soft, happy smile on his face.

He might be too late on that whole sentimental front. 

***

Daniel didn’t manage to give Johnny his gift until hours later. After he’d slipped away while Johnny and Robby talked, he got roped into watching Anthony open all of his gifts at once, as was his tradition that he forced upon the entire family when he was three years old. And then, when Robby and Johnny joined them in the family room, he got to sit beside Johnny while everyone else opened gifts. 

Johnny laughed out loud when Sam squealed at the bo staff, his face and bearing lighter than Daniel had ever seen him. He found himself lost in the planes of his profile, in the little blond eyelash that was resting on his cheekbone after he’d wiped his eyes when he opened Robby’s gift, a little reminder that his show of emotion had been real, that Daniel hadn’t imagined it. 

He caught Johnny’s gaze when Anoush opened Amanda’s gift – a tie. Johnny lifted his eyebrows and mouthed _‘shocker’_ at him, and Daniel had to turn away so no one else would see him smile. But when he looked back, Johnny was still looking at him, with that knowing smirk on his face that told him he knew that Daniel agreed with him. 

Sometimes it surprised Daniel that they often didn’t even have to speak to understand what the other meant. After misunderstanding each other for so long, it was suddenly so easy to read Johnny. He was an open book, abrasive and belligerent and uproariously funny, and he sought out Johnny’s expressions as a cherry on top of any social transaction now. What fun was it to listen to Anthony wax poetic about the graphics of _Mortal Kombat_ if he couldn’t lock eyes with Johnny and know, as plainly as he knew that the sky was blue that Johnny didn’t understand what the fuck Anthony was talking about?

As per their tradition, Daniel and Amanda exchanged their gifts, Johnny rolling his eyes at the expensive handbag that Amanda smirked at. Daniel's own gift was the same as the years before – a designer watch with the year engraved on the back. This year’s watch face was red. 

When he looked up to thank her, she let her eyes drift over to Johnny and smiled at him, blue eyes wide and guileless. He scoffed but slipped the watch over his wrist anyway. As he did, Johnny reached over and took his wrist in his hand and tilted it, like he was trying to tell the time. 

“Richy rich shit,” he said under his breath, startling a laugh out of Daniel’s mouth.

He waited until the kids were in their rooms and Amanda and Anoush had left before he pulled one last box out from under the tree. He tossed it in Johnny’s direction, pursing his lips when Johnny caught it with no trouble. 

“It’s not richy rich shit,” he offered. 

Johnny pulled a little white box out of his pocket and passed it over. “This one isn’t either,” he said. 

Daniel held the little box in his hands and motioned for Johnny to go first. He tore the paper off and paused at the box underneath, as if trying to predict what was inside. 

“It’s not a trap,” Daniel laughed. “Just open it.” 

“Bossy,” Johnny muttered, but lifted the top of the box anyway. Carefully rolled up inside was a black headband, with a red and yellow cobra stitched on the front. Johnny lifted it out of the box completely – it was soft and supple, the material luxurious in a way his old one wasn’t, after so many trips through the washing machine. 

“Figured you’d need a new one by now,” Daniel shrugged. 

“Ali gave me the other one,” Johnny said, still staring down at it. 

Daniel nodded. “Yeah, I know.” 

Johnny looked up at him for a long time, his fingers tracing the cobra on the front of the headband. He patted the seat beside him. Daniel sat next to him, his knees pressed against his, the little white box balanced on them.

“Open yours,” it was a gentle command, Johnny’s voice quiet and nervous. Daniel gave him a bracing look and untied the little gold bow. 

The little lotus pendant was still perfectly in the center, resting on the little pieces of cotton. He didn’t speak, but lifted it out of the box with shaking fingers, the chain long enough that most of his shirts would hide the pendant itself. 

Johnny, without having to be asked, took the chain from Daniel’s hand and unhooked it, reaching around Daniel’s neck to fasten it. It wasn’t remotely necessary, the chain would have fit over Daniel’s head without unhooking it at all, but Daniel didn’t complain. Instead, he took the opportunity to watch Johnny work, his brows just barely pinched while he tried to rehook it, his eyes even more startlingly blue this close. 

And then the cold chain was settling on the bare skin of Daniel’s neck and Johnny’s hand was smoothing it down, calloused and large and warm. 

“When?” he asked, so quietly the word was almost an exhale. Johnny paused, his hand still on the back of Daniel’s neck. 

“Before the symphony,” he admitted, his smile a little shy. “I had Robby find a jacket while I got this.” 

Daniel chuckled, his eyes leaving Johnny to look around the deserted living room. “You had your son go into a department store alone, on Christmas Eve.” 

“It was a rogue decision,” Johnny admitted. “But something told me to get it.” 

“I’m glad you did,” Daniel said, looking down at the pendant, silver and no nonsense, a little like Johnny. 

When he looked back up, Johnny’s eyes were on his lips, his hand on the back of his neck no longer pretending to be of any use and moving toward his jaw. Daniel huffed a laugh and pulled Johnny in for a kiss by the front of his flannel shirt, rendering the whole romantic build-up moot. He heard Johnny make an aggrieved sound against his mouth and chose to ignore him. If he wanted to complain, Daniel would just have to remind him not to look a gift horse in the mouth. 

Though that would probably be too prosaic of a joke for him. 

Instead, he focused on kissing him, loosening his hand on Johnny’s shirt to run through his hair. Johnny laughed and pulled away. 

“Should’ve known you only wanted me here to touch my hair,” he said, leaning in to kiss Daniel’s jaw, where he had just a hint of stubble from skipping a day of shaving. “Don’t think Amanda didn’t tell me.” 

“Tell you what?” Daniel asked, tilting his chin up to give Johnny more space. 

“Blond pretty boy?” 

“I _didn’t_ say that!” 

“Well, good luck convincing me of that now, LaRusso,” Johnny laughed, kissing the junction between Daniel’s neck and shoulder, where the silver chain was resting. 

“Whatever, Johnny,” Daniel grumbled, pulling Johnny closer. 

“Merry Christmas to you too, jackass.”


End file.
